The Yellow Wallpaper (Bedford Cultural Editions)

The Yellow Wallpaper (Bedford Cultural Editions) Review

Plot Summary:
A young family goes to a country home in a small American town for the summer. The husband is a physician who hopes that being in the country will help his wife over her currently unhappy state. The wife is probably suffering from what we would call postpartum depression. She often feels tired, and her physician husband's cure for this is to isolate her in the attic of their rented home. The attic has barred windows, a bed nailed to the floor, and hideously yellow wallpaper. As time moves on, we see the woman, who narrates the story, become more and more enthralled with the wallpaper- first she sees it as ugly, then she sees patterns and shapes in it and finally she sees that there is a woman trapped behind it, trying desperately to get out. And she decides to help this poor woman escape.

My thoughts:
In The Yellow Wallpaper, the narrator asks her husband multiple times to let her out and to allow her to socialize and write and enjoy her life, but he refuses, citing her health as his reason. As the narrator says, her husband "is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction." Thus, isolated as she is and suffering from what starts as a seemingly mild form of mental illness, the woman in The Yellow Wallpaper descends into insanity and no one even notices until it is too late.

I think this is a very important story when one considers women's health and the coddling way in which women were (and still often are) treated. Here is a story of a woman who tried to stand up for herself, but was told to just relax by her dear, sweet husband who always knows and wants what is best for her. The narrator's thoughts on the yellow wallpaper also morph and change with her mental state and her own feelings. What begins as ugly wallpaper turns to moldy and smelly paper and then finally becomes a prison for a woman stuck behind it, yearning to break out. And the narrator tries to help this imprisoned woman get out, in much the way she herself wants to escape her room and her life.

This story conveys a great deal in a very limited amount of space. It's also a very important work for its time- it sheds light on both mental illness and the role and rights of a woman in a family. It really makes clear just how unhappy women were in some circumstances, Gilman proves in her short story that unhappiness can lead us all to commit desperate acts. Whether to gain love, or freedom, or just to remove herself from horrible circumstances, a woman will leave her person and personality behind to escape her reality.

Highly recommended for fans of Kate Chopin's The Awakening. I also highly recommend Stephen Benatar's Wish Her Safe at Home!

The Yellow Wallpaper (Bedford Cultural Editions) Overview

This edition of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" is based on the 1892 "New England Magazine" text of the story. The edition includes a selection of documents designed to help students situate the story in relation to Gilman's time period and wide range of interests. Included are 19th-century advice manuals for young women and mothers; medical texts discussing the nature of women's sexuality; social reform literature concerning women's rights; the working classes, and immigration; and excerpts from periodicals, diaries, and writers notebooks that reflect the sense of the changing literary scene of the time.

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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) Review

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is one of the few books that every American should read and is also essential for anyone even remotely interested in American history, African Americans, or slavery's sad story. It is a fine piece of writing in itself and also of immense historical value - a true American classic.

The most obvious aspect is of course autobiographical. American literature has a long, prestigious autobiographical tradition, and this is one of the best entries. Douglass' account of his life is profoundly moving and immensely thought-provoking. He begins with his first memories and carries his story all the way to what was then the present. Needless to say, the inside look at slavery from a slave's perspective is the most valuable part; there are numerous such narratives, but this is surely preeminent. The story is heart-wrenching, vividly and unforgettably detailing humanity's inhumanity; we see what it was like to be a slave in regard to everything from food, clothing, and shelter to labor. Many of the incidents are almost painful to even read; actually living through them - or even being alive when such things happened - is now thankfully unimaginable. Douglass gives several examples of physical cruelty, but the most harrowing stories may well be those of psychological torture and simple denial of basic human feelings, as in the heartless breaking up of families. Such things are inherently moving, and this would be one of the most emotional works ever if it were fiction, but the stunning fact that it is not makes it all the more meaningful. The dread weight of its truth is particularly shocking when we realize that Douglass came from one of the areas where slavery was least harsh. The horrors here related are thankfully long past, but such books will always be immensely valuable as reminders of just how cruel people can be - and have been quite recently. We must never forget, lest they happen again.

Douglass in this way is more representative than individual, and he indeed took it on himself to speak for all slaves. The book was in this sense propagandistic and did its job better than anyone could have expected, laying slavery's evils bare to many who were previously unaware or unable - possibly unwilling - to believe. It was an abolitionist milestone and had a real effect in moving slavery toward its end. Yet Douglass' story is extremely interesting in itself; indeed, in many ways he was the spiritual successor of Benjamin Franklin, founder of the American autobiographical tradition. Franklin practically invented the American dream by showing how hard work and perseverance could raise one from humble beginnings to wealth, fame, and acclaim. Douglass had infinitely worse circumstances yet managed to rise far above them - not only teaching himself to read but becoming a genuine autodidact, not only escaping slavery but becoming a noted abolitionist, orator, writer, black leader, and racial authority with world fame and reverence. Few stories are more inspirational, and the work is thus on top of everything else the best kind of self-help book. Douglass unforgettably shows that it is possible to overcome even the most adverse circumstances and gives a good idea of how to do so.

One must not neglect to mention that, incredible as it is, Douglass is a premier prose stylist. Considering his circumstances, the fact that he was able to write at all is amazing; anyone would make great allowance for poor or even semi-literature writing. In fact, though, Douglass is a top-level writer; this is not only one of the very few autobiographies that is true literature but simply great writing per se. The writing is simple in the best sense; Douglass truly embodied Jonathan Swift's good style definition: "Proper words in proper places." He is admirably clear and concise. That said, he works himself up to a rhapsody when appropriate, reaching near-lyrical heights; the passage where he compares himself to the free is one of the most affecting and best-written I have seen in the hundreds or thousands of books I have read. That Douglass' Narrative has this totally unlooked for virtue in addition to all others is thoroughly impressive.

Simply put, anyone who has not read this should do so as soon as possible; few books are more important or memorable. Douglass is an American giant, and this is his enduring fame's base. No one who reads it can forget it, and that may be the highest praise of all.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) Feature

• ISBN13: 9780312257378
• Condition: New
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) Overview

This second edition of Douglass's Narrative reprints this classic document together with speeches and letters, all in a volume designed for undergraduate students. An extensive introduction places the Narrative in its historical and literary contexts with annotations on needed background.

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